How many of you know anything about sibling rivalry? I am the oldest in a family of

more or less four kids. My sister and I are the closest in age and the only ones who kind of grew up together, so the rivalry was also always greatest between the two of us. Of course, we always wanted to be in the same things, play the same games, etc and each of us wanted to be better. Sibling rivalry…. I tend to be a bit more patient than my sister is. Quantos de vcs sabe algo de rivalidade entre irmaos? Eu sou a mais velha duma familia de mais ou meno 4. Minha irma eu eu somos os mais perto em edade e somos as únicas quem creceu juntos (por causa duma família complicada), pois então a rivalidade era sempre maior entre nos duas. Claro, por que nos queria sempre jogar os mesmos esporte, cantar nos mesmos grupos, e cada uma queria ser a melhor. Eu sempre tive uma personalidade bem mais paciente do que minha irma, mas nem sempre no sentido santo.

She would get mad at the smallest things but, then again, my patience didn’t work to her benefit at times like these (nor did they work to my benefit when I would get in trouble because I was the one not reacting). I knew there was little she could do that would really bother me, but wouldn’t you know that if she said, “Don’t touch me….” Haha. Well, isn’t there something about commands like that that makes you just want to reach out and…(reach hand out and poke)?

Minha paciencia nem sempre funcionou por o bem da minha Irma. Eu sabia que ela não pudia fazer muito para me pertubar, mas se ela falasse por mim “Não toca em mim….” Não tem algo sobre essas palavras que te faz querer (tocar tocar tocar)

In the Bible there are many such stories. In the book of Genesis we see a story of the youngest, named Jacob, who gets his way at the expense of the eldest, Esau. Actually, today that wouldn’t be much of a surprise to anybody. Being the oldest of four, I’m well aware of how easily the younger children have it. In any case, this situation got really bad very quickly. Although I often wanted to kill my sister and may have even thought about it, I definitely never actually did it. However, in this story Jacob goes on the run from his brother who is indeed mad enough to kill him, and he eventually stops running, gets married, has two wives and eleven kids (well, eventually he had twelve, but the twelfth wasn’t born until after this story). God somehow decided that Jacob should be blessed and, though it was not without effort on Jacob’s side, God definitely blessed him until the point where his father-in-law was quite upset. This is the setting for the story about to come, found in Genesis chapter 32 and 33.

Na Biblia tem varias historias de irmaos. No livro de Genesis, nos encontramos uma historia dum irmão mas jovem, Jaco, quem passa perna de cima do mais velho, tomando por se o que era pra ser do Esau. Pra falar a verdade, eu sendo a mais velha de 4, esa não seria uma sorpresa pra mim. Eu sei que os mais jovem geralmente tem a vida mais fácil. Mas nesse caso, as coisas virou feio muito rápido. Ainda que eu talvez queria um vez em quando queria e ate pensei em matar minha irma, eu nunca realmente tentei. Mas nessa historia, Jaco corre de Esau e termina morando numa cidade bem longe, e ainda que ele não merecia, Deus abencoo Jaco ate o ponto que o sogro dele ficou com ódio dele!

How many of you have noticed that bad things come in multiples? It just seems that one day we are in the middle of our blessings and God is somewhere around, but suddenly we get blown from all sides (and sometimes it seems that God is dealing the blows). In this case, Jacob had a close call with his father-in-law only right before realizing that another one was coming. God was calling Jacob to the promise land, into Canaan, along with that call, Jacob was going to meet with Esau. Quantos de vcs ja notou que as coisas ruin ja vem vários duma vez? Parece que um dia estamos na meia das nossas bencaos e Deus está por aca, mas de repente vem as lapadas de todos lados. Jaco evitou um disastre com o sogro dele, logo antes de ver que logo depois vira o outro batido. Deus estava chamando Jaco para a terra de promessa, a Canaa, mas junto com esa chamada, Jaco teria que encontrar o Esau.

Jacob, whose name implies someone familiar with struggling (though not always for the best purposes), says, “Well, God. If that’s what you want,” and even sends notice to Esau that he is coming and that his intentions are peaceful. News comes back that Esau is coming with 400 men. Can you imagine hearing just that? Jacob didn’t hear anything except that at this moment, his brother who, last he knew, wanted to kill him was headed in his direction with 400 men. I can see him now, his knees wobbly as he imagines a straight-on charge. Four hundred is a lot of men to be coming at a person all at once! And so he sets up a plan to protect himself and his family and to appease his brother.

Agora, o significado do nome Jaco implica alguem que conhece luta, e ele disse pra Deus, “Deus, se o Senhor quiser que eu fosses,” e ele manda noticia para Esau para avisar que ele esta indo e que as intenções dele são todo de paz. O mensageiro de Jaco então volta dizendo que Esau vem com mais 400 homem. Já imaginou o que fara com esa noticia? Jaco não ouviu nada mais, so que o irmão, que pela ultima vez que se encontraram, ainda queria matar ele. E esse mesmo irmão tava vindo encontrar com ele de novo, so que esa vez ele vim com 400 homem! Eu imagino Jaco com joelhos tremendo em quanto que ele imagina uma ataque bem grande. Quatro centos homem são muito pra descer numa pessoa duma vez! E, pensando todo isso, ele fez um plano a proteger se e a proteger a sua família E AINDA MAIS, como apaziguar o seu irmão!

At this point in the story, Jacob is stressed—perhaps beyond stressed. Can you relate? I can remember some major times of stress when it seemed like things kept piling up and there was no way out. I was having financial problems with the school, homework was piling up, my family was having issues. Luckily no one was trying to kill me. And once you leave home, that’s it. You’re on your own. You figure things out on your own. On a college campus there a lot of people, but there in that moment…. Have you ever felt like you were alone in the middle of a crowd? I’d reached the point to where I didn’t even know how to pray. I withdrew and grew quiet not only with God but with those around me.

Entao, aqui vemos o Jaco, estressado, mais do que estressado. Voce consegue imaginar? Eu posso lembrar umas épocas de estressa quando parecia que as coisas estavam ajuntando de cima de mim e que parecia que não tive saída. Eu tava na universidade com problemas financeiro, não sabendo se eu teria que sair da escola. Minha família estava na época mais difícil que já enfrentou. Gracas a Deus ninguém estava tentando matar-me! E quando sai de casa, ta fixo. Vc esta so, e tem que arrumar suas soluções so. No campo da universidade tive muitas pessoas, mas naquele moment era como eu estava sozinha no meio de muitas pessoas. Cheguei ate um ponto que não sabia nem como orar. E eu entrei em solidão e ficei calada não so com Deus mas também com os ao redor de mim.

Quite honestly, I was afraid to let God have it. Oh, I definitely wanted to give it to Him, but not in any holy sort of way. And then someone told me that God wants it all…. Actually, it was my friend Clive. You might know him—some people call him C.S. Lewis. Yeah, we’re buddies.

Pra falar a verdade, eu estava com medo a falar os meus pensamentos ruins, pra Deus. Mas Deus falou comigo por algums livros que eu estava lendo nessa época.

You might know him as the man who wrote the great and illustrative stories of the Chronicles of Narnia. But in his lifetime, despite his the confidence that comes through in some of his books, he struggled with God in a very real and hard way after the death of his wife. It’s times like these when people begin to question the character of God. Clive had spent years with one woman—the love of his life. There’s something special about the relationship between a man and a wife. Some say it mirrors the image of our relationship with God Himself!

Talvez vc ja viu os flimes ou ate leio os livros de Narnia. Mas o autor dessas historias lutou muito e publicou o jornal dele quando ele estava sofrendo para cuidar da esposa dele e o tempo depois do morte dela. São essas horas que uma pessoa questiona o caráter de Deus. C.S. Lewis, o autor, tinha passado anos e anos com uma mulher so—o amor da sua vida. Tem algo bem especial de um relacionamento entre homem e mulher. Tem algums quem disse que esse relacionamento e ate um espelho do nosso relacionamento com Deus.

So what happens when the person who has been the image of God in your life dies? What happens when God Himself appears to be nowhere to be seen or heard? When the silence of the night surrounds you and the quiet grows to a deafening roar? C.S. Lewis describes such a time through his book, A Grief Observed, yet as I watched him, I saw that he did not get silent with God, but struggled with God. He went from a complete questioning of Gods character to the point where he says in his book, “Suffering makes relevant the question of whether God exists and whether He is good.” I found myself in a wrestling match with God in the beginning not, as Lewis would say, necessarily questioning my belief in God but questioning the character of the God in whom I believed.

Entao, que acontece quando a pessoa que tem sido seu exemplo maior do amor de Deus na sua vida morre? Que acontece quando parece que Deus esta em silencio e a noite fechar ao seu redor? C.S. Lewis, no livro dele, pensou tudo isso e passou ate mais. Ele sim chegou a questionar o caráter de Deus e se ele e bom, dizendo que “sofrimento faz relevante a pergunta na sua vida de se Deus existe e se ele e bom.” Eu, no meu sofrimento me achei assim—não duvidando a existência de Deus, mas a caráter dele.

Jacob, whose name insinuated an under-handed character and a vicious struggle, physically struggled with God. God enters into the story and, as usual, is at the center of it. It’s kind of messy really. Jacob is alone in the dark, vulnerable and stressed. And along comes God and Jacob begins his struggle with God. (Read Genesis 32:24-31)

Mas o Jaco, o nome de que significava suplantador e lutador, entrou numa luta física com Deus. Deus entrou agora nessa historia e, como sempre, ficou bem no centro de tudo. Jaco esta agora sozinho no escuridão, vuneravel e estressado. E agora vem Deus e Jaco comenca a sua luta com Deus.

Have you ever realized that when you take the time to struggle with God, sometimes you are actually striving with God? That when you feel you are fighting with God, there comes that point in time when you realize that you and God are fighting together? When I was going through the hard time, I heard a chapel speaker talk about praying out loud and, like we saw in the film The Apostle (though not quite as loud), I began to struggle with God. Sometimes when we struggle or fight with God, perhaps we should thank Him for not letting go. Sometimes when we struggle and fight with God, we are actually striving with God and getting to know and understand God more truly.

Voce ja realizou que quando voce toma o tempo a “brigar” com Deus, muitas vezes voce esta batalhando com ele do seu lado? Que quando vc sente que esta brigando com Deus, chega um ponto em que vc nota que você e Deus estão lutando junto, não contra? A verdade e que muitas vezes nos lutamos contra e queremos brigar com Deus, mas no meio da luta com ele, descobrimos que estamos batalhando junto com ele e conhecendo mais a ele.

A name change, whenever you see it, signifies a transformation. The struggle that began, at some point, became “striving.” The name change to Israel can be translated as both, “one who struggles with God” and “one who strives with God.” And through the struggle, through the fight and suffering, Jacob came out with God. Never in this passage or the passages to come does it say that Jacob let go of God or that God let go of Jacob.

Mudanca de nome, quando vea na bíblia, significa uma transformação. A briga que começou virou um esforço. O nome de Jaco então virou Israel, que pode significar luta dos dois jeitos— o quem briga com Deus, e a pessao quem luta junto por Deus. E pela luta, entre o sofrimento e conflito, Jaco saiu vencedor junto com Deus. E se você leia bem, nunce diga nessa pasage que Jaco soltou Deus o que Deus soltou a ele.

Some may read into the passage a weakness of God or some sort of extra power that Jacob had. However, another way to look at it is that neither would God let go of Jacob. God had a divine commitment to stay with Jacob through the struggle until Jacob himself was transformed. And it was only after Jacob himself made that change and struggled with God that his own circumstance—his own trials changed in themselves.

Algums talvez pudia ler nesa passage algum fraqueza de Deus ou que talvez Jaco tive um poder extrema. Mas um outro jeito a ver isso, e que Deus escolheu a ficar com Jaco na meio de tudo. Ele formou uma aliança divina a ficar com Jaco pela luta toda ate que Jaco mesmo foi transformado. E era so depois que Jaco mesmo fez esa mudança e lutou com Deus que as suas circumstancas – suas provas também mudaram.

The struggles with God can be painful not only because our circumstances are painful, but because the process of change is painful. Jacob walked away with a hurt hip. There come those hard times in our lives when we are the most angry with God, when we feel so weak. Yet such times reveal something strange that appears time and time again throughout the Bible—which is that it is by our weakness and scars that we know our strength. That when God strikes our hips and we walk off with a limp, this limp is proof of the time when we grew closer to God and that we carry the impact of His love with us—that we encounter God and grow strong.

No fim, as lutas com Deus as vezes doi não so por que nossas circunstâncias machuca, mas também porque o processo de mudança doi. Jaco saiu do encontro com Deus com quadril machucado. Pasa aqueles épocas difícil em nossas vida quando ficamos com raiva de Deus, quando nos sentimos fracos. Mas essas épocas revela algo estranho que aparece vez e vez de novo na Biblia toda, e esse e que são os nossas fraquezas e cicatriz que nos conhecemos nossa própria forca. E que quando Deus pega em nossas quadrils e nos saímos mancando por causa da coxa, esa coxa e uma lembrança da época que nos chegávamos mais perto de Deus e que nos levamos junto o impacto do seu amor com nosco– que nos nos encontramos com Deus e saímos mais forte.

This story has a pretty happy ending. Time has a way of healing wounds and God has a way of changing our circumstance. Read with me, if you will, the ending of this story—Jacob’s encounter with Esau in Genesis chapter 33 beginning with verse 1. (Gen 33:1-10)

Esa historia tem um final feliz. O tempo tem o seu jeitinho de sarar as feridas e Deus tem o seu jeito de mudar as nossas circunstancas. Leia comigo, por favor, o final dessa historia—o encontro de Jaco com Esau em capitulo 33 de Genesis, comencando com versiclo 1.

The wounds of this story went back to childhood. Do you remember who Jacob was? Do you remember who you were? Those times when you just had to do the very thing you were told not to? Are there any times that have just stuck with you and seem to in some way define who you are or how you look at people? Is there anything that you have been afraid to show God or to talk to God about, but it is tearing you apart inside or perhaps even destroying relationships with others?

As feridas dessa historia comencaram desde crianca. Voces lembram quem era Jaco? Voce lembrar quem era você? Aquelas vezes quando você sentiu a vontade a fazer certamente o que não devia? Tem umas épocas que ficarama comtigo e nalgum jeito defina quem vc e ou o seu jeito de olhar aos outros? Tem alguma coisa que vc tive medo de mostrar para Deus o falar pra ele, mas que possivelmente esta destruindo seus relacionamentos com outros ou destruindo a se mesmo por dentro?

The time has come. God has blessed us many times when we did not deserve such blessings. God is not deceived. He knows who we are, what we hide, what we struggle with. Yet if we strive with God, God changes us, and in turn He also changes our circumstances that He might use us to bless others—to bless even those who we think have caused us to struggle the most. He heals those broken relationships. He transforms the sinful nature. And even if we struggle with Him, He will not let go. If we will hold on to Him, He will hold fast to us and together we strive.

A hora chegou. Deus tem nos abencoado varios vezes quando nao merecemos os bencaos. Não e possível decepcionar ao Deus. Ele sabe quem somos nos, o que nos escondemos, e os nossos desafios. Mas se nos entramos na batalha com Deus em nosso lado, Deus nos muda e muda nossa circunstancas que ele também pode usar nos a abençoar otrous—ate os que talvez causou o a conflita em nossa vida. Ele sara relacionamentos quebrados. Ele transform nosso natureza de pecado. E se nos lutamos com ele, ele não nos soltara. Se nos agarramos a ele, ele nos segurará firme e junto lutara por o melhor.

Let’s pray.

Dear God,

We thank you for your many blessings in our lives—for being there even when we never acknowledged your presence. Thank you even for those times when we didn’t like what you were doing with us, when we couldn’t understand. We acknowledge that, as the psalmist says, we lie down and sleep, we wake again because the Lord sustains us.

Nos agradacemos por suas bencas em nossas vida—por estar ai ainda quando nos nao reconhece a sua precencia. Obrigada ate por as épocas quando nos não gostávamos do que vc estava fazendo com nos, quando nos não entendemos. Nos declaramos que, como diga em psalmos, que nos deitamos e dormemos e despertaremos de novo so porque vc, Senhor nos sustenta.

Bring us, oh Father, through those days that we wish we wouldn’t wake up. And thank you for those days when you show us your transforming power. Thank you for living with us, rejoicing with us, for struggling with us. We ask you to be the center of our stories, oh God, to enter our lives, to change our lives and in doing so that you might change our circumstances.

Nos leva, o Pai, pelos dias que nem queremos acordar e manha e agradecemos de novo mesmo por esses dias em que vc nos mostrar seu poder que tranforma. Obrigada por conviver com nos, por regozijar com nos, por lutar junto com nos. Nos pedimos que o Senhor seja no centro das nossas historias, pra entrar em as nossas vidas e por mudar-as E, fazendo isso, que vc pode também mudar as nossas circunstancas.

Change our hearts, father, that we might be new and that we might one day come out to look like you—to love others the way you love them, to be instruments of your blessings. If that means we walk away limping, God, we are okay with that because we know that in you we have grown strong despite our weakness.

Muda as nossas coracoes, Pai, para que nos possamos ser novas e que nos possamos um dia sair a paracer como vc—a amar outros o jeito que vc lhes ama, a ser instrumentos da sua bencao. E se isso significa que nos saimos mancando, ta bom, porque nos sabemos que com vc nos crecemos das nossas fraquezas.

I pray for each individual here, that you might stand by them through the struggles and that you would show yourself and your character more fully everyday. That they might walk through life truly knowing you. We thank you that we can call you Father and that we can call you friend.

Eu oro por cada pessoa aqui, que o Senhor fica do lado de cada um pelas lutas, e que vc nosso Deus, se mostra mais e mais sua verdadeira caráter cada dia. Que cada pessoa aqui possa andar na vida te conhecendo profundamente e totalmente. Obrigada por nos poder te chamar de pai e de amigo.

We thank you for all of these things.

In your name I pray.

Amen.

It’s been a few years, but I’ve decided to start blogging again! I’m reading a ton and preaching as well, so look forward to seeing my sermons and comments on theological reading comments! I’m also in the process of preparing to move to Brazil. For general posts about the move, check out http://newlifekingdom.wordpress.com . I will be posting thoughts about missions and intercultural Christianity here FOR SURE! So enjoy!

Something hit me today as I was sitting in our work communion that had nothing to do with the events of the moment, seeing as the communion had not yet started, but which fleshed out with the passing of the chapel. I’ve been in a constant struggle in relationships that I’ve never been faced with before, and suddenly I began to pray, “Dear God, please give me satisfaction.” I was not pleading for those things which might make me satisfied, I was praying for satisfaction with where and what I am. I’ve found that in marriage and my expectations in marriage, I was looking for the satisfaction that I’d found in other relationships. But as I hope that most people realize in marriage, it’s not that significant other that makes one satisfied. In all truth, after marriage, I felt less whole initially than before I’d gotten married. I felt like I’d lost myself and, at times (it’s still early), I still do.

So today as I was brooding and complaining about how my husband doesn’t consider me and who I am, and as I proudly announced how much I do to consider him, I reached that point, before my God, where I could see myself and say, “Oh, Amber. How foolish you’ve been.” I can’t sit around expecting my husband to make things better. While I wish we were a better team in all things, he cannot complete me. I have forgotten that my vibrant life before was because of my passion and closeness to God, my realization and acceptance that is perhaps at times easier to accept from God as a single person than as a married woman wanting those things from a husband.

What would it look like for God to be “more than enough” in my life? Would I return to or move onto the vibrance that was once in my life? The last thought that comes out of all of this for me is that satisfaction can only come in humility. Where is the connection? I’m not sure how to word it at the moment, but I feel it. I could be satisfied if I could be humble.

The movie, The Visitor, is the touching story of a man, a United States citizen who, perhaps by divine design or a strange twist of chance, is brought into a community largely thought of but rarely truly experienced by the average citizen. It’s a feeling I have come to identify with and, in fact, this movie hit very close to my heart. Imagine your husband, your mother, your friend. Try to understand what this might be like. Now put an accent on them and take away their driver’s license. Suddenly whenever they’re out of the house, there’s an unspoken fear. If they’re late (which is often the case as international time is, as one of the characters in the movie states, usually around an hour late), you fear you have hugged them for the last time in a long time.

We’re starting, of course, from my point of view. I’ve been there. They’re pulled over for something trivial– perhaps they forgot to use their blinker or were driving 10 mph over the limit. Fifteen minutes later they’re in the back of the car and no one knows where they’ve gone.

Two hours later you get a call. He’s in jail and everybody thinks he’s a criminal. You go to try to bail him out. It’s alright, they tell you at the front. You’ll pay the bond and he’ll be with you that night. Four hours later you catch a glimpse of him as the final details of the bond are worked out. But suddenly there’s something else. He’s a foreigner. As if they’d forgotten in the 6+ hours he’s been there that the guy has an accent. And before you know it there’s a reason to call ICE. But ICE isn’t operating after 4:30PM, so you wait for another 2 hours before you find out that they’ve decided to put an Immigration Hold on him. That’s right. It all happened so quickly in the movie, but it’s much slower.

Eventually you get a call, but it’s not like in the movies when you’re immediately talking to somebody. No, you pay out sometimes up to $50 just to receive a phone call, but by the time you figure out how it works, he’s been moved once, twice, three times to new facilities each with a different calling card company. Add it up. One hundred fifty dollars just for at most 5 5-minute phone calls.

And visits are not as they were in the movie either. Visiting hours are Saturdays and Sundays, and calling hours for information are between 9-4:30. It is the price of poverty, many times. I have heard the light-hearted sarcasm as they speak of their home countries and even their first years in the USA. Some remember living with 7 other guys in an apartment. There was a church that handed out clothes, so they went to work in the cold with shoes that were too big (which is fine because it allows for layers of socks when it’s snowing).

But anything is better than it was before. Those “good  old days” in the “old country,” when your mom thought she would lose you forever if not for the kind man who spoke the Word of God over your life and said, “This boy will not die,” then lifting you into his arms and taking care of your stay in the hospital. There, you see, without money, you will not receive medical care and you will die. Or, do you remember the time you and your brother fought over a loaf of bread? It wasn’t right for him to steal it. But at the time your stomach knew no right and wrong.

Then one day someone comes to town. And you get this big loan that everyone thinks you’ll pay off because the guys who asks for the money says that it grows on trees in the USA. Nobody goes hungry there, and if you pay him 15,000 dollars (don’t worry that you can’t afford it. You’re loved ones will take out loans and sell their rings, because one day you’ll pay them back), you too can live safely and build a life for your family. He doesn’t tell you that the people will ridicule you. He doesn’t tell you that you can’t find an apartment because you can’t prove income. He doesn’t tell you that you need a car and you need to drive to make money, which is dangerous, because as we established in the beginning you could be deported for running a red light and end up in deeper problems than you were before you left.

Beyond that, where does this money come from? You can’t even afford to go back when you thought your stay would be only temporary, and often you can’t even afford to pay your own bills let alone send it back to pay off the loan your parents took out.

But there’s something wrong in it all. However sad the story, however complicated the situation, they’ve lied and cheated to get here. They have broken the law. And we find ourselves against a wall and in shades of grey saying, “Where do I stand?”

And I wonder when he will come home today. And I think, do I sign this paper though signing it is a lie while not signing it leaves us homeless. Or I lie awake when sirens ring outside the windows wondering if tonight they will force him from my side. Where would I be? Where would I go? How would I pay my bills, my debts, where would I put myself as I would likely run after him? How long would it be before I could sleep by his side again? What would I tell his mother? My father? How would I get to him if they decided that I could not go by his side? How would I find him? It’s a slick and desperate slope.

But we are Christians. We stand on faith.

How do we turn from fear into light?

How do we make what is wrong turn to right?

And what kind of stand must I from here on take

To help those around me living a life that is fake.

How can I find a path in the fog that is grey

Oh my dear God, Please help us all find Your way.

When my Grandma died this summer, her children and grandchildren continued a remembrance of her and wrote in a book some of what we all remembered about her life. She and my grandpa together taught us many biblical verses and concepts, but one of the verses we all had to memorize was the 23^rd Psalm. When she died, one of my cousins who is closer to my age spoke about the values of my Grandmother, one of them being, “Leave everything better than how you found it.” My Grandma, he said, left everyone she met better for knowing her, left every space, whether it be physical or immaterial, better for having come in contact with it.

This says something about what it means to walk with the Great Shepherd. There’s something that should be significantly different when you’re walking side-by-side with someone so influential as is a shepherd, that person to whom we belong and who guides our paths. Below is a youtube video that I saw, and while you’re watching it, I would like you to think about what it really means when we say, “The LORD is my shepherd.”

You are the Shepherd

Psalm 23

A psalm of David.

1 The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.

2 He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,

3 he restores my soul.
He guides me in paths of righteousness
for his name’s sake.

4 Even though I walk
through the valley of the shadow of death, ^[a]
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.

5 You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.

6 Surely goodness and love will follow me
all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the LORD
forever.

The following was written in Feb 2005, but it is an on-going conversation I have noticed in several blogs:

Liberty and Justice for All

American is a land that lives under the statements “All men are created equal” and “With liberty and justice for all.” A Bill of Rights states that to which men and women of every race, faith and culture, under any circumstance are entitled. But what is justice? Who is responsible for demanding and delivering justice? How can a world in which many hold the beliefs of moral relativism grasp and demand a universal justice? Questions continue to form the more I read, hear and see and, as was stated in class, once you have known, you can’t turn back.

The Problem: Ignorance and Injustice

Perhaps this, alone, explains the comfort of the general public of American—the lack of knowledge and experience of the sufferings of the world behind each political conflict. With such a wide variety of means of communication, the average American has never seen the face of a starving six-year-old in Africa nor heard the story of a Christian Palestinian in Israel. In fact, some would go as far to ask why the child’s parents couldn’t get a job?

As the article by Fred Van Geest pointed out, places like Nicaragua, a starving and hurting nation, are serving as “warnings” of what happens in the unfortunate circumstance that a government might take a position, fail and, as punishment, its people suffer, hunger, and are punished. In such circumstances, one must, in fact, ask just who is being punished and is this punishment, in any sense, just?

The first step, before one ever defines justice, is to define injustice, knowing the problems and the issues. As I was preparing, my mind was bombarded with more questions than answers and it was during one of these mental battles that a certain scene came to my mind. Over Christmas break I was discussing some issues that were rather argumentative through my school district which revolved around a new (and Jewish) district superintendent who had outraged many parents when he refused to allow certain traditional Christmas celebrations and festivities. My stepbrother, who is commonly influenced by the prejudices of his father, made a derogatory statement towards Jews and, in response, my step-mom became flustered and told him to be careful. “The Jews are God’s chosen people.”

After much interaction and discussion with an individual who grew up in a Palestinian refugee camp, this comment was slightly unnerving. My readings thereafter, however, have given voice to what I felt at that moment. In a strong, Republican household, many a joke about the “wimpy Frenchman” and the “towel head” has floated through the air and I can’t help but ask in such a situation, where is the consideration for God’s chosen Frenchman, God’s chosen socialist, and God’s chosen Palestinian? Perhaps one should be more aware, in these circumstances, that the argument is not necessarily with the individual, but with the government, because it is the cultural jokes and lack of face—the ignorance that is at the very root of the injustice.

In his book, Blood Brothers, Elias Chacour asks the one who claims the faith of Christ, “Can you help me to say that the persecution and stereotyping of Jews is as much an insult to God as the persecution of Palestinians?” He later goes on to say, “God’s Israel included ‘foreigners,’ those who were not of the fleshly tribes of Israel, but who had been grafted into his family,” later quoting Galatians 3 and Romans 9, both of which state that Abraham’s children and God’s chosen people are not as such by birth, but by God’s grace and by the decision to follow Christ and, as Paul stated, likewise “not all descended from Israel are Israel.” Of whom do the prophets speak when they speak of Israel? Could God’s Promised Land not be something that is not material? Could God’s promise be extended to those who are not Jewish? As Christians, we must think more of God’s vast capabilities that reach beyond the material world in which we live.

At one point, in fact, Chacour points to the disadvantage many people of the west may have in their graspings of God’s likeness. I have often asked how those who suffer so greatly under persecution and face the worst should they convert would ever come to know Christ. One would think it should be easier for someone who has everything to acknowledge God in His character. However, Chacour makes an interesting point saying at one point that,

“People in the West seem so taken with material things. It’s as if they have nothing in their spirits, so they need to surround themselves with nice comforts. …The real problem is that Western theology starts with man as the center of all things and tries to force God into some scheme that we can understand. Then He can be regulated. Elias, we’ve grown up believing that God is the beginning and end of all things. He is central, not an afterthought. He’s alive and has His own ways. Here, they want to tame God with their philosophy.”

There is also a common misconception that the Palestinian conflict can never be solved as it is a part of God’s prophecy and plan, but is it a part of God’s will? Can God not care for the individuals involved in such a large-scale issue? I think in this statement, too many Americans would be happy to dismiss it as an issue never to be solved rather than to see “God’s plan for peace between divided brothers (Blood Brothers).”

Therefore, if we are to define justice and to solve the problems of injustice, we must realize that, as is stated in the article Biblical Basics on Justice, “God’s will for all is shalom, and the task of the community of faith is to do God’s will.” The task is liberty and justice for all, which means, as much as the average American would like to take the isolationist views of what is and is not our problem, we cannot back down of the responsibility that comes with our economic relationships (Fred Van Geest), nor can we be restricted to these relationships in say that it is not our problem because (as a politician stated in Blood Brothers), “I do not have hundreds of thousand of Arabs among my constituents.”

“The injustices in other countries may be considered ‘foreign issues’ and therefore outside the realm of domestic responsibility. However this position fails to account for the relational character of international relations. …[Economic] relationships should not be considered impersonal, value-free market transactions,” says Van Geest who, in fact, continues by saying, “The biblical vision is a vision of a kingdom that transcends American, Canadian and European interests. One of the most prominent evidences of Christian weakness in the world today is the failure to pursue this political vision together in international community for the sake of justice for all people.”

According to the article Letting Justice and Peace Embrace, “The U.S. government—urged on by its citizens—will need to think less in terms of protecting its own national interests, still less of guaranteeing security against any possible future threat, and more of humbly accepting leadership in the challenge to promote multifaceted, global public justice.” One cannot, as a Christian, think solely in terms of America and its people because, as a responsibility to God and His Word, we are responsible to all with whom we have any form of relation, and these relations can be as a friend, brother or sister, or as someone whom you have not met but whose workplace you both effect and form. This, in fact, is addressed in the article My Sweatshop, My Plantation, which encourages the idea of boycott of companies who practice illegal and immoral treatment of employees.

In general, I would have to agree with the article, but I also would like to ask (on a side note) what happens to the employees of these companies when their jobs are cut from them? Sometimes we consider the idea of the job conditions and say that we cannot support a company who treats their workers as such. True. But what about countries where those are the kinds of jobs that are available. What can we do in a situation where to buy the goods is to support the torture, and to not buy is to take away the job and support the starvation?

The Definition: Justice and Mercy

The question one is asking when trying to define justice is simply what is the character of God and thus what does He expect from us? The face of God is to be shown through every Christian in all that they do as He, according to Chacour, “demanded that they demonstrate His own character to the whole world, that they show forth the face of God in every action from the way they conducted their government down to the use of fair weights and measures in the marketplace.”

In this sense, one must look at God in His full character in what seems to many a complete paradox—the paradox of being both a God who is just and a God who is love. Perhaps, however, when seeing the two as a paradox, one misses the concept of both justice and love altogether as, in a sense, they are one and the same and thus one then can equate the God of the Old Testament (often associated with justice) with the God of the New Testament (who’s focus was love) as they are indeed the same God.

The best illustration of this is found in the article The God Who Loves Justice, which sets the inevitable first point definition of justice when Wolterstorff says, “God’s love of justice inevitably implies God’s hatred of the injustice to be found in that world.” It is in this article that one can discover the Hebrew and Old Testament of shalom, a common greeting and concept in Hebrew (and thus Jewish) culture. This concept is defined by the, “flourishing in all dimensions of one’s existence. …God’s desiring the shalom of each and every one—not merely freedom from violation of one’s property but the flourishing of each and every one.” And it is this concept of shalom that is tied with justice by Chaplin when he defines both similarly as, “the right ordering of all things.”

Therefore, if our goals are Christian and our conquest is for peace, we must consider Chaplin’s statement of “Peace without justice is illusionary and transitory. But, equally, the route to justice involves nurturing peace along the way.” Are we, as Americans, doing our homework? Are we considering the people of the nation when we engage in the battles we feel are necessary? The call here is not a matter of whether or not to go to war, that is not my argument. The consideration is as such, that when we war against the government, we must consider the individual people and culture—are responsible for making sure that, in the process we know what is to their benefit and to “nurture” peace in such a way that we are not providing an American solution to a foreign conflict, but that we are Americans working towards a solution that works.

Likewise it is not our responsibility to discriminate or distinguish whom to “punish” and whom to help. Justice is not about punishment as much as it is about mercy and the relinquishment of injustice. God’s justice was not defined so much in terms of punishment as it was when he “raised the poor form the dust, and lifts the needy from the ash heap, to make them sit with princes, with the princes of his people. God gives the barren woman a home, making her the joyous mother of children.” (Psalm 113:5-9)

In our own pledge, we commit to justice for all and thus must remember as such to whom our responsibilities lie. “The way of a peacemaker was difficult—it required deep forgiveness, risking the friendship of your enemies, begging for peace on your knees and in the streets,” Chacour says, but this is the occupation to which God calls all Christians in one way or another. We are, according to Van Geest, to be “seeking to advance justice for all, regardless of nation or territory. …All of creation is to be redeemed, and Christians ought to be actively involved in the redemption of every feature of it.”

In doing this, we must look at the unfortunate view of Christians and thus combat these views with action. We must decide who we really are and think of whom we represent. During his years in seminary, Chacour remembers a professor once saying,

“If there is a problem somewhere this is what happens. Three people will try to do something concrete to settle the issue. Three people will try to do something concrete to settle the issue. Ten people will give a lecture analyzing what the three are doing. One hundred people will commend or condemn the ten for their lecture. One thousand people will argue about the problem. And one person– only one– will involve himself so deeply in the true solution that he is too busy to listen to any of it. …”

Who are you in this picture? Are you thinking critically? Is religion a hobby for you as it is for the Christian of whom Oz Guinness speaks when he calls the community to “Look for a place where the Christian’s faith makes a difference at work beyond the realm of purely personal things? …Look for a place where the Christian is thinking ‘Christianly’ and critically about the substance of work.”

I ask myself, am I a Christian of theory and philosophy, the Christian of whom Martin Luther King, Jr. speaks, religion “that professes to be concerned with the souls of men and is not concerned with the slums that damn them, the economic conditions that cripple them, … a spiritually moribund religion in need of new blood?” Do I turn my back to what I see and know, leaving behind the faces of I was Hungry, those who are still very hungry and lonely and cold? What is the character that the American Christian is portraying? I cannot tolerate the idea, nor can I wait to discover the solution to the idea, that I would wish to, as Chacour states in the final chapter of the book, try to “find the easy life of blindness to pain.”

The Solution: Love and Action

“Work for peace is accomplished not by contemplators but by people of action, builders and workers willing to get their hands dirty,” Chacour says. It’s not enough to write the paper, to read the stories, to remember these things—one must act upon it out of the pure passion that comes into the heart. Decide right away what your god is and that god you must serve. What are you committed to? Because, as I have discovered through classroom lectures, discussions and out-of-class conversation, whichever god is chosen demands total surrender and if I were to put my hands in the gods I created on my own—in the quest for self-satisfaction, the god of self, of material, of laziness, of nothing at all, how can anything get done? If your service is not towards others, how can others serve you? However, if you join in one “pure and holy passion,” you trust not in the Gods you have created, but in the God who created you and you are never alone.

Micah 6:1-8 says. “With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high? …He has showed you, O man, what is good: and what does the Lord require of you, but to do justice, and to love kindness and too walk humbly with your God.” The message is as such that love is the answer—love in its just and verbal form.

Chacour has begun to work solutions in his situations, but a similar concept of reconciliation can be spread throughout the direst of places all over the world—the concept of reconciliation with Christ and the Christian community. The spreading of the idea that Christians are not the self-absorbed and judgmental conquerors some view them to be, but that the love of Christ is active in many forms. “Christians must begin applying Biblical principles to specific contemporary public policy,” to begin with (Van Geest).

What are we “really doing with our lives and the gifts God has given us?” Where does your heart lie? What do we hunger for? “Is it a kind of spiritual hunger that does not stir you to do anything,” as described by Chacour in For What do You Hunger and Thirst? Do you truly feel the hunger that goes/reaches to the hunger of the Rwandan and the Palestinian? Do you share the pain of humanity?

What are the solutions? I only wish I knew them all. Many times I wrestled through the active ways that I could change these things and it is then that I realized that there are keys to the doors of different areas. Many times I would argue that the approach is first to the people and then to the government. I would argue that the politicians are the furthest from changes of hearts, which is the primary goal in reconciliation. However, they are nonetheless very instrumental and important. The stages begin with the heart of the individual, to the restoration of a community, to the restoration of a government that can allow for more changes of hearts. The three foster each other, but the beginning and personal level is that of relationships and the honor with in them.

Many times I read the horrors committed on behalf of each country and wondered how did the countries expect respect if they did not give it? How can reconciliation occur in an environment of oppression—one that lacks the idea of human dignity and hope;

“The stiff laws of the Old Testament were only a shadow of the higher law of God’s love,” Chacour says. “… One of the first things Jesus did when He reconciled man to God was to restore human dignity. …Only by regaining their shattered human dignity could they begin to be reconciled to the Israeli people, whom they saw as their enemies. This, I knew at once, went beyond all claims of land and rightful ownership.”

When asked, “What do you think is the greatest need of all?” in the Palestinian villages, Chacour responded, “Hope. …Palestinians need the hope of a future. Hope that one day we can reconcile with the Jews and live in dignity again.” The Hearts and Minds article stressed this in the sense that this is more than just an idea to be played around with– “This is not a time for peace loving, but rather for peacemaking, which is much more demanding.”

This brings us back to the idea of peace, of justice, and of shalom. Does peacemaking always mean the absence of war? Letting Justice and Peace Embrace makes a good point in the idea that;

“Imperialist, genocidal Nazism could be conquered only by force of arms. Violence within states may also require coercive intervention from outside, a challenge to which the international community is slowly waking up. …Whether the Iraqi people could have been liberated without foreign military intervention is doubtful, but now we’ll never know. International military activity must not, however, cause more injustice than it aims to redress… must consider all the costs.”

What are the implications of this? Again, the implications indicate the knowledge of how the actions will effect and be received by the culture in which the people reside. However, “we can’t ourselves eliminate war from our fallen world.” Some issues require political intervention and military action when considering a corrupt and harmful government. The importance is war as a means to shalom—the peace and prosperity of the people who reside in the affected land.

Frustrating to me is the lack of action by those who would still debate the war in Iraq. To sit around and play with ideas may be entertaining, but what are they achieving in their consistent opposition to something that has already happened. At this point, perhaps they themselves should think less of making an “I told you so” point and peace loving, and think more about peacekeeping both in Iraq and on the home front. Would they have everybody pull out and leave a country in chaos and inevitable self-destruction, thus being inconsiderate to the lives of Iraqis they so often claim to “defend?” What will these people say to troops returning home from Iraq who are dealing with emotional issues of war, of missing family, of losing friends? Perhaps supporting the troops but not the war is an interesting concept, but it is a theory without practice along with the rest of the debate.

Let’s move past the nationalist views and idealist thinking. Move past the days of debates that go nowhere and produce nothing, and show the world justice in action. Look just once into the face of the Brazilian boy running barefoot through the third biggest city in the world. See his bony frame and his outstretched hands and do something about it. Embrace his heart, fill his stomach, and show him the road to true dignity that leads to a peace that the world can never provide. Show them a peace that is not brought by a government, a fulfillment to both physical hunger and their hunger for a constant state of being. While policies are rightfully debated in the houses of politics by those who are hopefully thus called to change the large scale picture, those who are so called should follow the footsteps of Christ to reach to the immediate—bringing a hope and immediacy to an issue that has seemed, for so long, lost and unheard of. Who are you? What is your call? Can we show this nation what they agree to as citizens living under “freedom and justice for all?”

“He did what was right and just, so all went well with him. He defended the cause of the poor and needy, and so all went well. Is that not what it means to know me?” –Jeremiah 22:15-16

1 John 4 “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.”

What does it mean to love one another? What has it meant to you that God loved you? The most basic foundation of God’s love for us has been that He’s spoken to us in our language. For Beau, it has been through the history of creation and of the church. For Darin, it might be (dare I try to guess) through literature and challenge. I hope at the end of this you might feel open to sharing how you have identified with God in His identification with you. The point is, how do you translate your love?

Sometimes we think that God needs to translate Himself to us, but other people should just automatically understand us and our love. As we’ve tended to notice more and more however, in our customer service experiences here, is that perhaps in order to better serve and show God’s love to others, we may need to attempt to speak and understand their language. We need to translate.

Philip Yancey says, “Everyone has an image of God distorted in some way—we must, of course, since God transcends our capacities to imagine him.” What’s the point? The point I’m trying to get across is that perhaps the way Kim thinks is weird. And we all know that no one but Sarah can speak Sarah. And perhaps the temptation is to say that the way some of our customers want things is just plain idiotic. But God’s love, and God’s love that should be shining through us, simply requires us to speak with an accent, to be imaginative and attempt the language of the servant.

Duane Elmer wrote the following illustration,

A typhoon had temporarily stranded a monkey on an island. In a secure, protected place on the shore, while waiting for the raging waters to recede, he spotted a fish swimming against the current. It seemed obvious to the monkey that the fish was struggling and in need of assistance. Being of kind heart, the monkey resolved to help the fish.

A tree precariously dangled over the very spot where the fish seemed to be struggling. At considerable risk to himself, the monkey moved far out on a limb, reached down and snatched the fish from the threatening waters. Immediately scurrying back to the safety of his shelter, he carefully laid the fish on dry ground. For a few moments the fish showed excitement, but soon settled into a peaceful rest. Joy and satisfactions swelled inside the monkey. He had successfully helped another creature.

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